Alphabet plans appeal after US court rules Google illegally monopolised search—Here's all we know

Alphabet has notified intention to file an appeal against the landmark antitrust judgement which ruled that its company Google illegally monopolised online search and search advertising, Bloomberg reported.

After the new, Google stock jumped, rising 56% since the decision was announced in September. This has largely been due to its leads in the competitive artificial intelligence (AI) race.

Google: ‘Remedies are unwarranted and should never have been imposed’

As per a Reuters report, Google has appealed the judgment saying that Mehta's order forces it to share data with competitors and complying risks exposing its trade secrets with no way to win them back if the appeal goes in their favour.

“Although Google believes that these remedies are unwarranted and should never have been imposed, it is prepared to do everything short of turning over its data or providing syndicated results and ads while its appeal is pending,” the report quoted the company statement.

Google to appeal anti-trust case: Here's what we know

• The notice of appeal was filed in a Washington federal court, along with a request to put the lower-court ruling on hold while the appeal is pending, the Bloomberg report added.
• This means that the appeal would likely delay any corporate structure or business changes that Alphabet was due to implement after the initial judgement.
• According to the Bloomberg report, the United States DC Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to hear the case later in 2026. It cited statistics compiled by the US Courts to note that the Court takes around a year to issue judgements after an appeal notice is filed.

What did the US federal Court ruling say about Google?

The case was first filed during US President Donald Trump's first term in office in 2020. It went to trial in the second half of 2023, and in August 2024, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had illegally monopolized the search market.

In his order, Judge Mehta said that the company's contracts with Apple and Samsung Electronics, which mandated use of Google search engine as the default browser blocked rivals and caused an illegal monopoly.

He however refused a US Department of Justice (DoJ) suggestion to force Google to sell its Chrome browser but instead ordered yearly rebid for default search engine option to allow rivals opportunities to compete, the report added. Google pays over $20 billion annually for the deals with Apple and Samsung.

What's likely in store for Google in US antitrust case?

The Reuters report noted that despite being found to hold multiple illegal monopolies, over the years, Google has emerged “largely unscathed” in battles against US antitrust enforcers.

The DoJ has until February 3 to appeal Judge Mehta's dismissal of their resolution for Google's antitrust violations.

(With inputs from Agencies)